Now it's computer issues

[Kev Williams]

Any network guru's around here?

First, an explanation of my network, since it's a bit complex:

'basement' computer a win7 64, it's my 'main' computer does all email and most internet, and is otherwise the most used computer-

'garage' computer is a win7 32, runs machines, does internet-

'office' computer is identical to the garage machine, does office duty-

other computers include three XP's that do print server duty, connection points for various machines, although one is used like the others to run graphics programs and a machine.

OTHER other computers include a vista laptop and Win7 32 laptop, these are semi-proprietary as each runs its own laser engraver, and another XP that my BIL uses for programming engraving jobs and sending those jobs to various engravers on the network...

Until yesterday, every one of these computers had complete, unfettered access to ALL files and folders on every other computer, either directly from the network computer list or via Remote Desktop. But out of the clear blue sky for no reason I can figure out, 'garage' computer is now completely invisible on the network, except for the fact it shows up on EVERY computer's list of network computers... Even so, NONE of the other computer can 'find' it, or connect to it... ? This doesn't work for me ;) -- This computer is sent jobs for several machines in the garage from 2 of the downstairs computers. Not being able to do this would be a big headache...d

I've tried everything I can think of....

-the computer name is correct, hasn't changed
-NO passwords are involved anywhere, all that's been eliminated/disabled via Group Policy and in the registry
-all computers are on a WORK (not HOME) network with MSHOME as the group name
-all network discovery and file sharing settings on every win7 computer match, XP's have no issues
-all computers show "everyone" having full access to everything on all computers
-all network adapter settings match
-all TCP-IP settings match
-all pertinent Services settings match
-all pertinent registry settings, that I can think of, match
- I installed an 'airplay' program to access the phone/TV mirroring dongle I just bought, and did a system restore back 2 days before the install, no help.
- I installed the same program on the office computer, had no adverse effect
- all firewall settings match, and the garage computer remains invisible when its firewall is turned off-
- virus/malware scan comes up clean
- the 'garage' IP address comes up empty when pinging from the other computer's command windows, but it pings all the others just fine-
>edit> running a 'netstat' command on the other computers, the garage computer never shows up, all others do...

What happened to cause this, and what am I missing?

[Lee Schierer]

I just had a similar experience with my laptop. It would log on to the wifi but then the wifi would shut down after a minute or so. I could turn it on manually but it would not reconnect unless I restarted the computer. No programs had been added or deleted. It did this for several days. I finally did an internet search and found a suggestion to delete the network connection and then add it as new. So far it is back to normal.

[Kev Williams]

So I kinda sorta found the problem- somehow the computer name, which SHOULD read like \\garage\garage user, is now named \\garage\IPC$ ... The IPC$ stands for inter-process communications share, aka 'null session connection'... according to Microsoft:

The IPC$ share is created by the Windows Server service. This special share exists to allow for subsequent named pipe connections to the server. The server's named pipes are created by built-in operating system components and by any applications or services that are installed on the system. When the named pipe is being created, the process specifies the security that is associated with the pipe, and then makes sure that access is only granted to the specified users or groups.
Ok, so how did it get there? I'm assuming it was from the Airplay program, but why? I put the same thing on the office computer and it didn't do that--

So the easy fix was to simply rename the computer! Voila, now I can access the computer again! BUT- :rolleyes: -the old computer name still exists, AND is still the 'actual' computer name, I'm assuming anyway, because running a command prompt, it displays the old name!

So now the question: How to get rid of the old name? So far, no clue. I'm going to rename it back again, but I don't expect that to work...
---that would be too easy ;)

[Jim Becker]

Microsoft did make some changes to networking in Win10 recently which eliminated some of the older methods for local sharing...this was in the interest of security. If any of them were being used in your network, that might be causing some issues. I sorta had to deal with this recently when I wanted to setup some sharing between my CNC Win10 computer in the shop and both my Mac and Win10 virtual machine here in the house and stuff that worked "awhile ago" when I was more Windows savvy was a bit different.

This doesn't help with your issue, but is merely to point out that sometimes something changes behind the scenes that can be maddening!

[Kev Williams]

Win7 is the newest OS I'm using- I have an HP with win8, but the hard drive committed suicide a couple months ago.

So from what I gather from a few online sources, that Share is the result of the Airplay program's developers(?) needing access to the program for tweaks-- I guess... that's all find and dandy, but why did it choose to add the share name to the computer's name? Why not add it to the PROGRAM'S name? Very frustrating to waste 7 hours on what turned out to be a 2 minute fix, which was: go to Services, and stop the Server service, then restart the service. Simply doing that eliminated the share name and put everything back the way it was. :rolleyes:

[Curt Harms]

No expert here for sure but I have a router with 2 USB ports that can be used for storage or to share a printer. I've tried flash drives and spinning hard drives in USB enclosures and both worked. I tried a powered USB hub which also made all the storage devices I tried available, sort of a poor man's NAS. I could access the contents through a web browser or through a file manager. I haven't used Windows to any extent since around 2010 but never had much luck with peer to peer networking.

[Mike Henderson]

In Windows 10 you have to run "services.msc" and enable "Function discovery Resource Publication (https://wiki.mcneel.com/zoo/windows101803)" in order to see other computers on the network. I have no idea if that applies to Windows 7. I know that function discovery was done in response to a security problem so maybe they put it in Windows 7, also.

Mike

[Actually, I think you have to enable function discovery on all the computers you want to see, not just one.]

[This may apply to Windows 7 - see here (https://computerstepbystep.com/function_discovery_resource_publication_service.ht ml).]

[Yep, this definitely applies to Windows 7 - see here (https://pattersonsupport.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19189/~/enabling-network-discovery-in-windows).]

[Marshall Harrison]

Run ipconfig at the command line on the garage PC. Possible that its IP wasn't static and it has changed. Did you add another PC (or anything with an IP address) to the mix just before you encountered this problem?

also try to ping the machine name from on of the other PCs to see if it is looking for the correct IP address.

[Jerome Stanek]

Why do people keep trying to suggest fixes when he said he found the problem and fixed it